Firm Reviews Santa Monica Youth Programs After Alleged Assaults

SANTA MONICA, CA — The City hired a firm to review the City's youth program policies after a former City employee was accused of abusing children, and those findings were presented to the City Council at a meeting Tuesday night. Praesidium, Inc., a firm with 25 years of experience evaluating, designing, and implementing best practices to prevent and detect sexual abuse of minors, provided a presentation to the City Council, the City of Santa Monica press release said.

President and CEO Aaron Lundberg shared background on child sexual abuse, findings from a comprehensive review of City youth programs and protocols, as well as opportunities to strengthen best practices across the City.

"Unlike tornadoes and earthquakes, abuse is preventable, but there is no silver bullet. There are best practices that organizations like the City of Santa Monica can implement that encourage a healthy culture that effectively keeps our youth safe," Lundberg said. "The City has already begun the work to implement our recommendations to create an even stronger system to prevent child abuse."

Praesidium’s audit included program site visits, more than 105 interviews, and a system-wide review of program procedures and policies, training curriculum, as well as screening and hiring documents. According to the City, the findings highlighted strengths, including:

• Dedicated city staff committed to protecting youths
• Strong screening practices
• City requires and provides mandatory reporter training
• Many City programs have strong policies and procedures to protect youth

The areas for improvement focus on standardizing policies and procedures across programs to ensure every program is using the same best practices, the press release said. City staff are sometimes uncertain of appropriate staff-to-youth ratios as well as all anonymous reporting mechanisms, the report found.

Praesidium's recommendations, include:

• Ensure that everyone, no matter their role, understands that safety and the protection of children is part of their job
• Build on existing youth protection policies with a focus towards prevention
• Establish a Youth Protection Committee to oversee citywide standardization of:
• Youth protection policies and best practices
• Reporting protocols
• Response procedures for incidents of abuse, red flag behaviors, and youth to youth abuse
• Training for all staff and volunteers focused on prevention

"There is no greater priority than the safety of our youth," Assistant City Manager and Chief Operating Officer Katie Lichtig said. "We will expeditiously implement these recommendations to ensure every program and every staff member has clarity and confidence in their role to prevent and detect child abuse of any kind."

The recommendations presented will be affirmed through a resolution brought back to Council in the coming months, the City said.

"As much as we might wish to, we cannot change any events from 20 years ago," City Attorney Lane Dilg said. "But we can take the opportunity to be the best we can be – now and in the future. And we are committed to doing so."

The City hired Praesidium in October 2018 after a former City employee was accused of abusing children during a City youth program in the 1980s and 1990s. The City has worked with Praesidium over the past year to "proactively review and strengthen all City youth programs and policies," the City said.